Marvel Announces X-Men Gold And Blue Teams, And They Look Great

Trying to become Earth's Mightiest writer or at least one that people look for.

(WARNING: Minor spoilers for X-Men Gold and X-Men Blue below)

Marvel announced earlier this month that there will be two new X-Men books starting in early 2017. With the future of the not only the X-Men, but mutants in general, being up in the air, it's refreshing for fans of the X-Men to hear that Marvel hasn't gone forward and tried to kill them off and replace them with the Inhumans (at least not yet anyway). Today, we were given the lineups of both Team Gold and Team Blue.

X-Men Gold

Old Man Logan still refusing to wear tights.

Written by Marc Guggenheim with art by Ardian Syaf

This team makes me VERY happy and also gives me a sense of nostalgia. Gold Team will consist of Old Man Logan, Storm, Colossus, Marvel Girl (Rachel Grey), and Nightcrawler. This is a heavy-hitting team. Old Man Logan has proven that he hasn't lost a step in his old age, Colossus and Nightcrawler are always solid members of the #XMen (can't wait to see how Old Man Logan, Kurt, and Peter interact now that they are used to each other), and Rachel Grey and Storm are two of the most powerful heroes in Marvel period. While that is a great lineup, what makes this team so special is their team leader — Kitty Pryde will FINALLY get a chance to lead her own team of X-Men.

Kitty Pryde has literally sacrificed herself to save Earth and other planets when she was phasing a bullet and also saved the galaxy during the Black Vortex arc. Kitty Pryde looked very disappointed in her fiancé Star Lord after he accepted Carol Danvers's proposal to stop crimes before they could be committed. Kitty may have called the marriage off and opted to stay on Earth.

Regardless of the reason, it's long overdue for Kitty Pryde to lead a team of X-Men. Considering that she will be the leader of a team with Storm (who has lead the X-Men on many occasions) it says a lot about how she respects her and what she has become. Makes me hope that Kitty and Colossus will be together again

Writer Marc Guggenheim told IGN:

“Kitty is the right person to bring the X-Men into the future, to herald in the next era of the X-Men. We are post the war with the Inhumans. The X-Men are sort of at a crossroads. They're at a point where they are trying to decide, is there a future for the X-Men? And Kitty is very much of the mindset that there is a future for the X-Men and it's a bright future. That there's more work that the X-Men still have to do. Not just for mutants, but really for humanity. What Kitty's leadership does from a storytelling perspective is that it really positions the book for its mission statement, which is we really want to tell stories that get back to the idea of just the X-Men as superheroes. Not all of the stories that we're doing are based on mutants or the problems of mutants or the conflict with the Inhumans. It's very much a team superhero book.”

X-Men Blue

Written by Cullen Bunn with art by Jorge Molina

The out of time original X-Men are still together, but with a couple of twists. This time, instead of Cyclops being team leader, Jean Grey will be leading the young Iceman, Beast, Angel, and Cyclops. With everything Jean has gone through — the pressure of everyone assuming she would become the Phoenix and destroy the world, keeping Old Man Logan at peace, and dealing with X-Pox virus — Jean has grown into a leader quicker than she would have if she remained in the past. On top of that, with their past mentor, Xavier, dead, they are being mentored by an enemy in their timeline: This current timeline's Magneto.

I can't wait to see where Magento takes them. Magneto's way of approaching has always been more aggressive than his old friend Xavier's. Will Magneto try and make this team of X-Men's style attack first? Or, will he honor their original mentor's wishes and keep the approach of human and mutant coexistence in place? Or, is there something else sinister going on? Also, will he try and send them back before their timeline is ruined? This should be GREAT!

Cullen Bunn told IGN.com

“He almost takes the role of a Professor Xavier for the original five here. That's really what I thought was interesting with putting him in the book is that Magneto is the oldest enemy of these X-Men. This was the first ‘evil mutant’ that they battled way back in 'X-Men #1.' And now here he is taking on this mentor role with them.

Why would these X-Men be working with him? What is he trying to accomplish now? Do they feel that he's changed his ways? And that really is what I was excited about. It opened up a lot of really interesting questions for us. There's some mystery involved in terms of why the X-Men are working with him and what they're trying to accomplish. There's a little bit of intrigue there because knowing Magneto, you know he's got ulterior motives. He's Magneto. The original five X-Men aren't stupid. They know this. And maybe they have some ulterior motives of their own.”

More of what we have to look forward to from the mighty mutants in 2017.

With a great team on these new X-Men projects, the future of the X-Men is looking good. The X-Men will hopefully going back to the basics, where they were saving the world instead of just running and hiding from the Terrigan Mist.

Watch Magneto and Xavier share their final moments together in this somber clip from X-Men: First Class:

What book are you looking forward to most? Let me know in the comments below.